Sunday Happenings

Happy Sunday!

It's been beautiful weather in Atlanta this weekend and we've tried to be outdoors as much as possible soaking in the glimpses we've had of spring being around the corner.

Friday morning, Houston said he wanted us to both look forward to a date night on the patio when we got home from work! So we both came straight home from work and we sat our on our porch and shared some cheese and crackers and Banshee Pinot Noir wine that was really good.

I recently discovered this amazing playlist on Spotify called "Coffee Table Jazz" and we turned the playlist on and enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing night at home. I highly recommend it!

Houston cooked us some yummy steaks on the grill and we caught up on some of our TV shows and called it an early night!

I woke up early yesterday morning for my final Pure Barre training and I'll officially start working the front desk at the studio next month, I'm so excited! Sat out on the porch in the afternoon soaking up some Vitamin D and grabbed dinner with some of our friends at 1KEPT.

We have a pretty relaxing Sunday planned with brunch at Red Pepper and church tonight at 5:00.

Here are a few Sunday Happenings for you lately...

We have a nephew on the way!!
What I'm most excited to share is that we have a little nephew on the way!! My sister Betsy and her husband Michael told us over Christmas that they were expecting their first and two weeks ago I was able to fly home to Orlando for the Gender Reveal Party and found out it's a baby boy!!

I thought it was the perfect way for them to announce the gender - both Betsy and Michael are big golfers and they found a golf ball on Etsy that would explode pink or blue when they hit it!

Our family is overjoyed and already love this unborn baby boy so much - we just can't wait to meet him! Open to any and all auntie advice :)

Below are a few pictures from the Reveal Party:

 

Healthy Recipe Inspiration

I found this article on Facebook, this woman lost 100 pounds in the last year and shares some of her favorite go-to, healthy meals. Here's a link to the BuzzFeed article.

The Smoked Salmon Cucumber Rolls and Brussel Sprouts and Sweet Potato Noodle Bowl 

look amazing and actually doable!!

5k for Atlanta Mission
Last weekend we had the opportunity to run in a 5K to support Atlanta Mission which is one of our very favorite organizations in Atlanta supporting homelessness. We love the mission they stand for and all the great things they do for our city and homeless community.

Now I'm not much of a runner any more, so the 5K was certainly challenging for me but I was impressed we ran more than I was expecting. Some friends of ours were able to join us and we had so much fun running through downtown Atlanta together.

 

J.Crew + NB Workout Clothes

One of my favorite bloggers, Carly from The College Prepster recently shared that J.Crew teamed up with New Balance on some adorable workout clothes. So many cute fitness clothes I want to try now!!

They have the cutest pink crops that I want here.

Hope you have an awesome week and we have more of this spring-like weather!

xox, A

Guest Post: My Mom's Pure Barre Story

My mom is an amazing writer, and today I asked her to guest post to share her Pure Barre story. My sister and I both love Pure Barre classes and when I was home a few months ago in August we convinced my mom to join us for a morning class, which she agreed to because she wanted extra time with her girls ;)

But to her surprise, she ended up really enjoying it and so she signed up for an unlimited month to see how it would go. She's been going ever since, and she's half way to her 100th class I might add!
I'm so proud of her for finding something she enjoys doing and it's extra fun that my mom, sister and I all have Pure Barre in common!

PS - My mom has the cutest Instagram account - if you don't follow her, you should :)

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Pure Barre Mills Park - Mom's first class before signing up for a month!

My Pure Barre story is short and sweet...

I love to spend time with my daughters! I wasn't intending to start exercising... I really wasn't!

My very first barre class was probably three or four years ago, at another studio with my girls.

I remember laying on the floor in class and the thought went through my mind,
"I think I'm going to die!"

I did what I could in the class (which wasn't much) and I wondered if I'd be able to merely WALK the next day, or week?? But the good thing was I was with my girls!

Fast forward two years and never another barre class. Then, we had our two daughter's weddings.

I did what every mother-of-the-bride would want to, lose weight!

I started a 28-day diet, that on Day 29 ended up becoming a new way of eating for me and my husband. I didn't intend to permanently change the way we eat. I had lost the weight, all 33 pounds of it! But what was still missing, was exercise in my life.

Remember how I love spending time with our daughters? Our Atlanta girl was in town for the weekend, and she and her sister were going to a Pure Barre class that Saturday morning. They invited Mom. It was a fun Mother-Daughter morning. We went to an early class at the Pure Barre Mills Park studio in Orlando, and met their Dad next door for breakfast afterwards. It was fun! 

I started thinking... maybe? Maybe I could do this???

During breakfast, the girls were so encouraging. My husband was so encouraging. 

I was "weakening." Maybe just maybe I could try it for a month?

I'm a practical gal, and I had just paid my $25 for the one class. If I was ever going to try it, now was my time. It certainly was a better deal - a month of unlimited classes for $99!

I was beginning to consider giving it a try, for the pure economics, if nothing else! Right there, in the middle of breakfast, they grabbed me (and my credit card!) and said, 

"Let's quick do this before she changes her mind!!"

And that's how it happened...

What I didn't realize was, I was about to fall in love with a new form of exercise for me, and that was HUGE because... I HATE to exercise! It was a TOTAL unexpected thing to happen in my life, too. Not too many big, new things happen in your life when you're SIXTY!

Each class slowly got a little easier and all those new phrases (like "lift, tone and burn") started making sense. I could do more than one thing at a time! Now I look forward to going to class, rather than dreading other forms of exercise I had previously tried. I can hardly believe it myself!

Class is tough... I'm not gonna lie. Every class is tough, but I'm doing it, and it feels so good!

I am feeling stronger, and that's been awesome!

Favorite Workout Tanks

There are so many cute workout tanks these days that I thought it would be fun to share some of my recent favorites!

I Can't. I Have Barre.
Simply Workout $36

This one cracks me up, in Pure Barre they always talk about the "Pure Barre ledge"

😂😂😂

Got Ledge?
Simply Workout $39

Killing It
Everfitte Etsy Shop $27

Happy Hour at the Barre
Everfitte Etsy Shop $26

Wino-Saur
Everfitte Etsy Shop $26

Straight Outta Platform
Sweatyselfie Etsy Shop $20

I want all of these for Pure Barre!! Which one do you like best?
Any suggestions for other favorite workout tanks?

xox, A

July Journal

I can't believe it's already the last day of July! This summer is flying by, but we've been able to do a lot of fun things with family and friends this month. So I thought I'd share a little journal of all the things we've been up to this month and of course some pictures.

4th of July Weekend in Highlands, NC

We drove up to Highlands, North Carolina for the 4th of July weekend to meet up with my family who came from Orlando. The first night, we got dinner at one of my all time favorite restaurants Canyon Kitchen in Lonesome Valley. The view is breathtaking (especially in the fall when the leaves change!) and the food is amazing and creative.
A lot of the food coming straight from their garden out back.

High Hampton Inn is an adorable place to stay that we like to visit while we're there. We went for lunch the next day and the guys played golf while the girls went shopping in Cashiers, the nearby town to Highlands. 

High Hampton has llamas that golfers can use to carry their golf bags!!
I'm not kidding. How cute are they?!

The next morning we went hiking at Whiteside Mountain. I think it's a nice level of challenging but not overly exhausting - my kind of hiking! It was a little foggy when we got to the top, but still beautiful! 

One night we went to this precious church for a hymnal sing, it can't seat more than 40-50 people. It was a wonderful and much needed vacation with family and nice to get away for a few days. And the drive from Atlanta is so easy - I highly recommend it! The main street in Highlands is so cute and I love that there is hardly any cell phone reception in the town. The perfect getaway!

Wine Tasting at Savi

We went to a fun Pinot Noir wine tasting with our friends Kristin, Colin and Jules at the beginning of the month for a little "Wine Down Wednesday," hosted by Georgia's only Master Sommelier, Michael McNeil. We got to taste 6 amazing pinots and they had fruit, meats, cheeses and crackers to compliment the wine as well.

This is the list of delicious Pinot Noir wines we tasted. My favorite was the second on the list,
2008 Domaine Serene "Evenstad" Reserve from Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Savi Provisions in Buckhead hosts several events a week in their wine tasting room. Some are free and others have a cost. If you're in the area, I'd highly recommend giving them a try. We've enjoyed trying a few so far, and have learned a lot more about wine from the ones we've gone to. Savi does a really impressive job! Great balance of education and great wine! Here is a link to their upcoming events calendar.

Wedding Weekend in Naperville, IL

Houston and I flew up for a fun weekend with friends to Naperville, outside of Chicago, earlier this month. Houston was a groomsman in the wedding, one of his best friends from college married the love of his life and the wedding was stunning. One of the most fun weddings I've ever been to! 

Several of our friends from college were there - the boys were in the wedding so us girls had a mini girls weekend and we enjoyed exploring around! Ashley and I tried Bar Method to sneak in a barre workout one morning and met up with the other girls to get our nails done afterwards. I liked trying a new barre workout, lots of similarities but always interesting to see how different studios work. 

Then we got ready for the rehearsal.

On Saturday, us girls got some breakfast while the boys got ready for the wedding. We laid out by the pool to get some sun before the wedding and headed to the church. The reception was stunning. There were so many little things throughout that night that were extra special - the father of the bride, best man and MOH speeches were all so heartfelt (and tear-jerking!), the first dance was super sweet, the food and music were amazing and the evening was complete with a flash mob!
We loved celebrating our sweet friends!

Hillsong United Concert

I surprised Houston and took him to a Hillsong United concert at Lakewood Amphitheatre. Hillsong is a Christian band that has written countless of the popular contemporary songs we sing at church so it was really cool to get to see them sing live. They are so talented and it was an inexplainable feeling to get to worship with nearly 20,000 other believers.
Absolutely amazing and I hope we get to see them perform again someday!

Tybee Island Weekend

Last weekend, I went to Tybee Island with the girls in my Bible study. I had never been to Tybee Island so I enjoyed visiting after hearing about Tybee for so long. I loved getting to know the girls in my group better and always love a beach weekend. I'm so thankful for these new friends of mine and growing in our relationships with the Lord through our friendships.

We stopped in Savannah on our way home for brunch at Huey's. Has anyone had those beignets before?? I hadn't been back to Savannah since my bachelorette 2 1/2 years ago, so it was fun to be back even for a few hours. Would love to spend a weekend with Houston there soon!

#PowerCoupleWedding2016

Wrapping up the month of July, we had a blast at a wedding last night for some great friends of ours here in Atlanta. Great friends, great food, great music, it was an absolutely honor to be included this weekend to celebrate such sweet friends! 

It was a formal wedding and I wasn't sure what to wear so I rented a dress from Rent the Runway, which was a great experience. I've rented from them twice before and I think it's the best business idea. Get $30 off your first order and I'll get $30 off my next one if you use my link here.

I went with some of my closest friends to get our hair done at DryBar beforehand for an updo. After getting all dolled up we headed to The Georgian Terrace Hotel for the ceremony and reception. It was absolutely stunning! We are so thankful for our special friends we've made in Atlanta.

It's been a busy but memorable month! Ready or not.. here comes August!

xox, A